I have seen these special vases in so called "Sommerso" technique, and with the assymetric air bulb, been attributed to Antonio da Ros - Murano. He drawed for sure similar models about 1960 and forwards, but these are not from Murano. They are from Strombergshyttan - Sweden, and of earlier date. In the bottom you can se the description "Strombergshyttan 1956 GN". GN stands for Gunnar Nylund, artistic leader for Strombergshyttan 1954 - 1967 and later as freelance.

Nylund designed several models like these with assymetric air bulb. They were produced in different sizes and both in clear Stromberg crystal and with colored underlay. His Shark Tooth vases are perhaps better known than these rectangular pieces. I think the golden yellow x 73 underlay color was one of the most frequently used.

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There are also some vases with assymetric air bulb designed by Vicke Lindstrand for Kosta, and also something ressembling the shark tooth vases, but I don't know which design is from an earlier time.

rebessin, 2 years agoTanks for your comments! Lindstrand did also this vases with assymetric bulbs. And his masterblower in K0sta, Bengt Heintze, invented a special pipe to blow air into these vases. The air channel in the pipe was not in the middle of the end, but sat a little sideways. I don't remember if they used those pipes in Strombergshyttan, but in any case I know that masterblower Kjell Andersson in Strömbergshyttan exchanged experiences with Bengt Heintze.

cobaltcobold, 2 years agoExtremely valuable informations as ever. These vases are overwhelming. By the way, Antonio da Ros is not so bad either. Look at this one:

I am always fascinated about these links between these distant regions. Some of the most beautiful designs in Murano were made by Finnish designers. Are there also Swedish deisgners who worked in Murano?

artislove, 2 years agofortunately the time is over when artists were forced to stay on murano so the secrets of glass making stayed on the island

rebessin, 2 years agocobaltcobold and artislove: In Sweden my grandfather Knut Bergqvist made several models in Venetian older style when he was recruited to Orrefors in 1914. He both copied models and performed his own compositions. During this work he developed an unmatched competence among glassblowers i Sweden. Swedish glassblowers and artists have always admired and inspired by the Italian and Venetian glass, but if this particular model from 1956 by Gunnar Nylund, is an inspiration from Italy, I don't know? Perhaps the opposite is true, that the Italian artists got inspired by the scandinavian artists from the 1950s? Or perhaps more likely, that they were inspired by each other and it gave an interesting development on both sides?

cobaltcobold, 2 years agoDear rebessin, this is a beautiful thing about design. There is not such a cult of originality as in art but a much more cooperative and inpirational approach, which doesn't mean that there is no such thing as originality. Was your grandfather ever in Venice?

designqvist, 2 years agoDear rebessin! Your glass collection is awesome, as is your knowledge about glass and its history! I enjoy very much reading your contributions here and on your blog and learn a lot every time. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!

This Bengt Heintze seems to have been a wizard with glass. I would love to see him and all those other skilled persons like your grandfather at work. Can you recommend any good films, is there something online? What a lucky man you are having had Knut Bergqvist as a member of your family!

@cobaltcobold: A beautiful Antonio da Ros-vase that you showed us via the link! Simplicity is all that is needed sometimes. It is hard for me to stick to Scandinavian glass only. But in this case not so hard, considering the price...

Concerning other Swedish Venini-artists, the only two I know of are Tyra Lundgren for example, who did beautiful leaf-shaped bowls, wall lamps, and loads of animals in the 30ies. And then there's Mona Morales-Schildt whose work I admire very much. Her Ventana-series is impressive. I don't have any Ventana right now that I can show you but a beautiful yellow Graal-bowl on the slider of my blog.

(A propos of nothing: It's a pity one can't put all interesting glass-groups here, on Facebook, on blogs, etc. together and view them in a single frame. Create a site of one's own and feed it automatically with all those contributions that are spread all over the web... It's hard to follow all of them on a constant basis. Tempus fugit...)